hey guys, this is a kind of generic question. i have an ipad 2 and am going to be usuing it in college. can anyone who currently does, please tell me what you use it for? also i hear you can get textbooks on the ipad. is there an app? how does this work?
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iPad for college
- Thread starter hurricanes305
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isnt itunes u only for podcasts? and i cant seem to find any textbooks in ibooks
At the moment the dedicated Textbook section is only on the US store. The only ibooks of this type are the Dorling Kindersley and the biology book sampler (2 chapters) by E.O. Wilson. You can search for these and download them.
I'm afraid you'll probably have to wait a few months for serious textbooks for uni/college to start filtering through.
iTunes U was just podcasts, but some had pdf docs attached. What the iTunesU app does is give the lecturers the opportunity to pull all the video/audio/worksheets supporting iBooks if they exist, supporting apps, pdf's and website url's into a cohesive learning plan.
The iPad is awesome for reviewing PDF's and if you are an english major with a lot of books to review, it's great for iBooks and/or kindle.
Other textbooks, you'll just have to wait a bit longer.
Hope you are still gong to have a computer as the iPad is too restricted to be of a great use as your sole computing device for college.
If you plan to use the iPad for writing papers you WILL want a Bluetooth keyboard - the onscreen keyboard is really not great for anything longer than a few paragraphs.
You probably want to look into getting some decent writing app like iA Writer. Evernote is a great friend for college students and everybody else. Something to annotate lecture notes, for example iAnnotate or Goodreader. If you are reading a lot of PDFs and need a database management system, it is worth to consider Sente or Papers.
I use the iPad for most of my textbooks in college. I use and love the CourseSmart app for textbooks. I also use NoteTaker HD and an iPad stylus for writing out math problems instead of wasting tons of paper.
The biggest advantage for having an iPad for college is being able to have textbooks imported. A lot of my textbooks were found online in PDF from websites like scribd. As these PDF's come roughly 100-300MB Dropbox usually crashes. GoodReader is the premier PDF app for the iPad far superior than iBooks, Adobe Reader, you name it. It can import PDF's straight from Dropbox, network, emails; bypassing all disadvantages of having to be chained to iTunes. It renders pages quite fast as well as edit and write features.
I've spent $0 on textbooks this semester.
All else I prefer lugging around this small iPad than a laptop or netbook.
I've spent $0 on textbooks this semester.
All else I prefer lugging around this small iPad than a laptop or netbook.
flashcards
If you are doing any kind of coursework that requires memorizing large amounts of info for exams, you have to get a flashcard app. I personally really like Mentalcase, because it's got a nice platform for both the ipad and the Mac O/S. They also frequently update their apps, and are very receptive to user feedback/suggestions.
Using digital flashcards makes studying so much less annoying - and I think it's more efficient.
good luck
If you are doing any kind of coursework that requires memorizing large amounts of info for exams, you have to get a flashcard app. I personally really like Mentalcase, because it's got a nice platform for both the ipad and the Mac O/S. They also frequently update their apps, and are very receptive to user feedback/suggestions.
Using digital flashcards makes studying so much less annoying - and I think it's more efficient.
good luck
thanks so much for your input guys. i couldnt find any of my textbooks on ibooks, hopefully soon they will filter more in? i am usuing a macbook pro now for school, and it seems like the ipad is more of a convenience. maybe not a necessity. do you guys agree? thanks so much for the replies.
Check coursesmart for your textbooks. Largest online textbook vender right now. All my books for the last 3 semesters have been there. Ended up saving 2/3 off book price and paid for my iPad in 1 year with those savings.
Last quarter I decided to try digital textbooks with kno app and it was the worst way for me to read. Two days later I ended up buying the physical textbook. The only use I have for the ipad in college is the calender
I don't know anyone in college that uses an iPad for work. At best they use it as a 2nd monitor, to display PDF's on and such. However, even people that have an iPad buy textbooks. There's no place in college (education) for an iPad.
I agree with CourseSmart. I saved almost 75% of the cost of my textbooks by buying through CourseSmart. However, the one caveat is the fact that you have to be hooked into a wifi network to load the next pages of your textbook. I have just been snapping screenshots of the pages if I will be in an internet-free zone. Also, the app doesn't multitask, which can be extremely annoying.
Not true, you do not need to be online to view pages offline. The only time you need to be online is when using the search function. I'm hardly never online because my school's wifi is horrendous.